Selv har jeg aldri vært i tvil om at anglikanerne er protestanter, og som tidligere luthersk teolog og prest, er det tydelig for meg at selv om anglikanerne nok kan ligne mer på katolikker utvendig/liturgisk, er deres teologi også svært reformert preget (dvs. av reformatorne Calvin og Zwingli, som var mer radikale enn Luther).
I 1992 var dte også mange anglikanere (i England) som gikk over til Den katolske Kirke da det ble åpnet for kvinnelige prester – fordi anglikanerne da gjorde det klart at de egentlig ikke var katolkker, ved å innføre noe nytt som katolikker og ortodokse ikke kunne gå med på.
10. juli i år vedtok så den anglikanske synoden i England å åpne for kvinnelige biskoper, og uten å åpne for særlig effektiv beskyttelse for prester og lekfolk som ikke kan akseptere dette. Et tydelig nytt bevis på at anglikanerne er protestanter, slik oppfatter mange dette.
Damian Thompson skrev om dette på sin blogg for noen få dager siden, og så langt har han fått 827 kommentarer til sitt innlegg. Her er et utdrag:
Tonight the Church of England finally acknowledged something that has been obvious since 1992, when it decided to ordain women priests: that it remains, despite the Oxford Movement, and as John Henry Newman came to believe very firmly, a Protestant Church.
As such, it enjoys the freedom to follow the example of its Reformed counterparts in other countries and ordain women to the highest level of ministry, whatever it chooses to call it. … Now that this freedom is to be fully exercised, what will happen to Anglo-Catholic traditionalists? Many will quietly, without ever admitting the fact, come to terms with their Protestant identity and stay in the C of E. Others will leave for breakaway Anglican denominations or join the Orthodox.
Those who are exploring the Roman option should not be hurried. It’s wrong to say that anyone forced out of Anglicanism cannot become a good Catholic: many great converts stayed in the C of E for as long as their consciences would permit them. But, once they were Catholics, they recognised that they were no longer Anglicans.
This point would not need spelling out but for the myth that has grown up that the Ordinariate creates “Anglicans in communion with the Holy See”. Nonsense. What it creates are former Anglicans who worship together in a new juridical structure which allows them to retain elements of their patrimony (which may be as major as adopting an Anglican-influenced translation of the Roman Rite, or as minor as not singing out of tune). …
But every single member of the Ordinariate, clerical and lay, will be a member of the Latin-rite Church governed by the Supreme Pontiff and therefore – though it is not the Church’s preferred term – a Roman Catholic. And I know I speak for many Catholics when I say that they will be very welcome indeed.